Populism on the March Worldwide: Germans Shout “Merkel Must Go”

It’s turning into a pretty bad Autumn for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. During October’s Unity Day celebration, Merkel was taunted and jeered at events in Dresden, the home of the anti-immigration group PEGIDA. The protesters shouted “Merkel must go!”

Merkel is running for her fourth term as Chancellor next year in what EU expert Nina Schick told CNBC would be a “messy” election.

“I think the headline of the German election is going to be that the AfD (Alternative for Germany), the far-right populist party, is going to smash the threshold to get into the Bundestag. That in German politics is going to spook people – a far-right, populist, anti-migration party going into the Bundestag,” Shick added.

Merkel is coming under pressure from German nationalists who are outraged over her migrant policies. The furor took a new turn as Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office released statistics showing migrants committed 142,500 crimes in just the first six months of 2016. In light of the news, Merkel and her CDU Party are having a hard time explaining to Germans why they support allowing so many refugees and migrants to permanently settle in the country.

Merkel was harassed again on Saturday as both right-wing and left-wing protesters vented their outrage in Berlin. These contentious events in Germany are being replicated across Europe. France is a cauldron of anti-migrant emotions. And a new ruling against the Brexit referendum forcing parliament to vote before Article 50 (the mechanism used to get Britain out of the EU) could create an explosion among the population if Brits feel their voices are being silenced. British PM Theresa May assured European leaders, including Merkel, that she would file the Article 50 separation despite the ruling.